How to workout muscles for speed rather than for endurance training alone?
Football Training
Football training involves strength building, plyometrics, or endurance developing workouts. These workouts are but a means to an end, not an end in themselves. Therefore, when football coaches apply these techniques too literally, they end up limiting the player. That is to say, strength training workouts are all very well, but they end up limiting the player if they are not judiciously intermingled with speed training workouts as well. Speed is the most crucial aspect in a football game, and more often than not, football players are disappointed in their “speed gains”.
What is Speed Training?
Training for speed is a different ballgame altogether as compared to training for strength and endurance. Therefore, it stands to reason that the approach has to be completely different when training to be able to respond like lightning on the field. The muscular agility and quickness required for responsiveness on the football field require something different and that is called speed training. Fastness or speed is not measured by the strength of your muscles, but by how fast they can contract. Consequently, the faster they can contract, the faster you can run.
An Example of a Speed Training Workout
Modern research tells us that a combination of isometric exercises and resistance cable exercises can increase muscular speed. These exercises supposedly condition the muscles for speed on the field. Most isometric exercises are mistaken for strength training and perhaps rightly so. However when applied correctly, it could be the most effective speed training workout as well. Football speed workouts, as the name suggests, are training programs designed to release muscular energy that can translate into speed.
How to Achieve Speed
Isometric exercises alone practiced in the strength training mode will do very little for developing speed. However, when combined with the resistance cable, they are an important aspect of football speed workouts. To use a familiar analogy, imagine a rubber band. The kind commonly used to hold a wad of notes together. If you pull one of these bands, hold and then realease them, they come back at you with incredible speed. This is precisely the kind of reaction you want from your muscles - quick contraction. Use a resistance cable to stretch your leg muscles. Hold for a few minutes and then release. Your muscles will react in exactly the same manner as the rubber band – contract with great speed. This kind of training ensures speedy movement of muscles, especially where it counts, like on the football field.